Singled Out: Michael Rudd's The Train Is Coming

New Mexico-based Americana/roots-rock singer-songwriter Michael Rudd just released his new album, "Ways of the World," and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the song, "The Train is Coming." Here is the story:

In mid-October of 2024, a few days after the last session for Going to the Mountain, my previous album, I learned that I had prostate cancer. My response, musically and spiritually, somewhat surprised me. It was as if I'd been waiting for a similar diagnosis for a long time, and now that it finally came, the rest of my life, as well as my purpose, seemed suddenly crystal clear. After a lifetime of simultaneously avoiding and fearing the reality of my mortality, the sands had shifted, and I found myself looking at a completely changed world.

The morning I was scheduled to meet with a doctor to discuss next steps, I got up very early with the first verse of "The Train is Coming" already in my head and started writing the song. "The Train is Coming" is the last track on the new album. It's meant to convey a kind of bittersweet acceptance for a life cycle that always ends the same way no matter the means. I've loved gospel since I was young, and, somewhere in the back of my mind, I made the subconscious - and then the conscious - decision to pair that love with the melody and lyrics that were coming out so naturally. The gift that gospel music gives us - even those like me, a cultural Jew who went to synagogue every week and heard very different liturgical music - is a deep feeling of joy that somehow also acknowledges that so much of life is suffering. So the song was cultural appropriation of a sort, but I'm hoping that listeners hear it as appreciation.

About a month later, after a scan, it turned out that the cancer was stage 4 and required several weeks of radiation, which ended a few days before we went into the studio to record Ways of the World, about five months after I'd received the initial diagnosis. All but one of the songs on the new album were written in those intervening months, and some of them, though not the majority, deal with an ever-changing view of mortality.

It would be a lie to say that I held on to what I felt when writing "The Train is Coming" - these days, I often have thoughts and emotions that could not be described as tranquil or peaceful. But I'm happy that at one point I felt something I'd never experienced before. In that way, the song has become a personal touchstone, a way of thinking that I hope will return someday.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

Singled Out: Michael Rudd's Going Away

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